West Lafayette Shopping

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When you visit Purdue, you've got to visit the bookstore and get the gear! Support Purdue Spirit and wear the school colors! They even have Purdue T-shirts in your favorite colors here! Buy a banner or a bumper sticker! Be a Boilermaker!

What to pay: Look around... They have pretty good sales!

You don't need to go to the bookstores to get Purdue tee shirts, mugs, postcards, whatever. You can get them at Discount Den on Chauncey Hill. Just be warned-this store has a lot of things that are not exactly "family friendly." And try to get your food somewhere else-they have groceries, but they are really expensive. Not bad, though, considering how close the store is to campus. You can also get a lot of personal care items, OTC drugs, office supplies, that kind of thing, there, too for reasonable prices.

Von's Books is the book lover's stop in West Lafayette. This isn't some textbook store that has about 10 t-shirts for every title they have in stock. At Von's expect books, and lots of them. They seem small compared to some places, but they don't front display a lot of books and, for the most part, they only carry one or two copies of any given title, so they maximize their space.

For those who don't get bibliophilia, Von's narrow aisles and tall shelves will be off-putting, but for those like me, every aisle provides little gems.

Von's Books is adjacent and connected to the Von's empire of stores - Von's Beads, Von's Cards, Von's Records, Von's Video, etc. - so for the non-book lover, there is plenty to keep them busy and quiet while we browse, browse, browse.

What to buy: Especially good are their sections of:
• literary criticism
• philosophy
• religion
• children's books
• science fiction and fantasy

What to pay: Books are cover price, expcept for any sales. They typically have a discount card you can buy which takes 10% off. Awhile ago this was only $5, so it paid for itself when you bought just $50 worth of books.